Heyday

By The Church’s fifth album—with help from young producer Peter Walsh—the band had mastered the art of blending hooks and melodies with lifting soundscapes and moods, all within the tight confines of guitar pop. Stoner experimentations and elements of drugtastic Syd Barrett tracks and psych-era Beatles let some songs on this 1986 album (the instrumental “Happy Hunting Ground,” “Columbus,” “Already Yesterday”) feel like a sunset stroll through fields of opium poppies. Others mix keen pathos (“Night of Light”) with big hooks (“Myrrh”). “Youth Worshipper” is a finely wrought indictment of those who try to facelift their way back to humanity, wrapped in a singsong chorus with abundant strings and horns. But it’s “Tristesse” that connects all the pop and mood dots together with its vaguely Kerouac-style lyrics, beautifully ringing guitars, and themes of living a spare existence without “these deeds and worldly needs.” It's essential music from the '80s that absolutely transcends the '80s.